Lair of the White Worm eBook

“Please tell me all you know’ or suspect.
To begin, then, of what sort is the mystery—­physical,
mental, moral, historical, scientific, occult?
Any kind of hint will help me.”

“Quite right. I shall try to tell you
what I think; but I have not put my thoughts on the
subject in sequence, so you must forgive me if due
order is not observed in my narration. I suppose
you have seen the house at Diana’s Grove?”

“The outside of it; but I have that in my mind’s
eye, and I can fit into my memory whatever you may
mention.”

“The house is very old—­probably the
first house of some sort that stood there was in the
time of the Romans. This was probably renewed—­perhaps
several times at later periods. The house stands,
or, rather, used to stand here when Mercia was a kingdom—­I
do not suppose that the basement can be later than
the Norman Conquest. Some years ago, when I was
President of the Mercian Archaeological Society, I
went all over it very carefully. This was when
it was purchased by Captain March. The house
had then been done up, so as to be suitable for the
bride. The basement is very strong,—­almost
as strong and as heavy as if it had been intended
as a fortress. There are a whole series of rooms
deep underground. One of them in particular
struck me. The room itself is of considerable
size, but the masonry is more than massive. In
the middle of the room is a sunk well, built up to
floor level and evidently going deep underground.
There is no windlass nor any trace of there ever having
been any—­no rope—­nothing.
Now, we know that the Romans had wells of immense
depth, from which the water was lifted by the ‘old
rag rope’; that at Woodhull used to be nearly
a thousand feet. Here, then, we have simply
an enormously deep well-hole. The door of the
room was massive, and was fastened with a lock nearly
a foot square. It was evidently intended for
some kind of protection to someone or something; but
no one in those days had ever heard of anyone having
been allowed even to see the room. All this
is a propos of a suggestion on my part that
the well-hole was a way by which the White Worm (whatever
it was) went and came. At that time I would
have had a search made—­even excavation if
necessary—­at my own expense, but all suggestions
were met with a prompt and explicit negative.
So, of course, I took no further step in the matter.
Then it died out of recollection—­even of
mine.”

“Do you remember, sir,” asked Adam, “what
was the appearance of the room where the well-hole
was? Was there furniture—­in fact,
any sort of thing in the room?”

“The only thing I remember was a sort of green
light—­very clouded, very dim—­which
came up from the well. Not a fixed light, but
intermittent and irregular—­quite unlike
anything I had ever seen.”

“Do you remember how you got into the well-room?
Was there a separate door from outside, or was there
any interior room or passage which opened into it?”